How to Reduce Google Cloud Platform Costs

Finding ways to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs is often regarded as the third stage of a company´s “Google cloud awareness journey” – a journey that begins with the eager adoption of Google Compute Engine, and continues with the over-enthusiastic deployment of instances on the Google Cloud Platform.

Although a less expensive option than its two main market rivals, the over-enthusiastic deployment of instances can wreck budgets and make future project planning a lottery. Indeed, companies with preset spending limits on their Google accounts may their instances are unavailable if their spending limits are exceeded.

Several measures exist to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs, but few will achieve a permanent reduction while developers continue to enthusiastically deploy instances on the platform. Probably the most cost-effective measure is to implement scheduling software in order to automate on/off schedules for non-production instances.

Why Scheduling Software is the Most Cost-Effective Measure

Many of the measures to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs have their faults. Switching instances to preemptive pricing plans is only viable if the instances are not required during peak times; while, considering the way cloud compute prices have fallen in recent years, committing to a Sustained Use Discount may result in a false economy.

Asking developers to switch off their development, testing and staging instances when they are not using them is an unreliable measure to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs, while reassigning developers to write and maintain scheduling scripts could cost you more than you will save depending on the number and variety of instances deployed on Google Compute Engine.

By comparison, off-the-shelf scheduling software is a lightweight SaaS that can be implemented quickly and through which automatic on/off schedules can be applied in minutes. Furthermore, not only can scheduling software help reduce Google Cloud Platform costs, but it can also improve governance over your Google account and increase accountability.

How Scheduling Software Helps Reduce Google Cloud Platform Costs

Scheduling software works by first conducting a discovery of the company´s Google account via a limited-permissions role, and then recommending which instances are suitable for scheduling based on the names and tags assigned to them. Administrators can then set company-wide on/off schedules based on the recommendations, or allow each development team to select their own schedules.

With ParkMyCloud, administrators and/or development teams have a choice of applying a preconfigured schedule (i.e. 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday to Friday) or creating a schedule that fits their working pattern better. It is not necessary to apply the same on/off schedule to all the instances. Individual instances or groups of instances can have different schedules applied.

As soon as the on/off schedules are confirmed, a figure indicating the projected savings over the next thirty days is displayed on ParkMyCloud´s UI. Once the schedules are operational (i.e. from Day 2 onwards) the UI also displays the amount already saved by using scheduling software. ParkMyCloud is quick, is easy and is cost-effective.

Improving Governance and Increasing Accountability

When the discovery process is completed, ParkMyCloud displays all the company´s deployed instances on a single view dashboard, giving administrators total visibility over the account. With access to this information, administrators can identify unused instances and terminate them, or reassign underused instances to cheaper pricing options.

With total visibility, administrators can also see when new instances are deployed, how much each parking schedule is saving and if further changes to the parking schedules can be made to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs further. The improved governance and increased accountability ensures the reductions you achieve by implementing scheduling software are maintained.

Having access to detailed information – plus the improved governance and increased accountability – can help with accurate financial planning for future projects. Administrators will be able to forecast with a fair degree of certainty how much capacity will be required and what it will cost. For some companies, this feature is more valuable than the reduction in Google Cloud Platform costs.

Try ParkMyCloud’s Scheduling Software for Free

ParkMyCloud has helped hundreds of companies reduce Google Cloud Platform costs quickly and easily, and now we are offering a free trial of ParkMyCloud´s scheduling software to every company – whether or not you are yet to reach the third stage of your “Google cloud awareness journey”. To begin your free trial now, click any “Try it Free” button on this page.

The trial consists of a fully-enable version of ParkMyCloud´s scheduling software, with every feature activated for you to evaluate. Not all companies will find every feature of benefit to them so, at the end of the trial, we offer a choice of competitive subscription plans based on your specific requirements. There is even a free option for companies with very few requirements.

If you would like to know more about using ParkMyCloud´s scheduling software to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs before starting your free trial, please do not hesitate to contact us and speak with one of our Customer Support Team. Our team will be happy to answer your question and guide you through the process of registering for your free trial. Don´t forget, whatever you save during the trial is yours to keep, so do not wait to start reducing your Google Cloud Platform costs and start your free trial today.